Humans and animals have natural teeth to assist in mastication of food and which are essential for sustaining good health. Teeth, however, comprise living tissue that may be corruptible by neglect, abuse and, or disease. In extreme cases decayed or damaged teeth are not reparable with typically available prophylaxis and must be extracted for the well-being of the patient. Notwithstanding removal, in the opinion of dental professionals, it is important that extracted teeth be replaced by prosthesis equipped with chewing surfaces. Replacements for teeth and the method for making such replacements are well known to those skilled in the art and include devices selected from the group consisting of bridges, full dentures, partial dentures, crowns, caps and combinations thereof.
The aforementioned dental devices are currently made from a number of materials that provide sufficient durability to sustain the rigors of chewing as well as provide good cosmetic aesthetics to match the remaining natural teeth in terms of physical factors including, but not necessarily limited to shape, size, texture, and color. Currently the materials used to make such devices include non-sustainable precious metals such as gold, ceramics, porcelain, plastics or composites of these materials. Standard dental devices are typically made of the above materials with a uniform high degree of hardness throughout the material, unlike natural teeth which consist of multiple layers of organic and mineral material in an ascending degree of hardness, from root to dentin to enamel, which has both formal and functional qualities and characteristics. Those qualities and characteristics are perfectly adapted to provide a kind of cushion or shock absorbing effect which protects the surrounding maxillofacial structure from stress induced damage. Such damage can include serious bone, muscular, and nerve damage, which is more likely to occur when superfluously hard and rigid dental prosthetics replace natural teeth which have a natural shock absorbing quality.
The present invention provides a natural, agriculturally derived solution that has substantially the same variable component hardness, and cushioning effect, as natural teeth.
Most dentists and dental patients have expressed high interest in prosthetic dental devices comprising natural, sustainable or “green” materials. Up to now, however no suitable natural and sustainable materials has been found to be a satisfactory in terms of the physical attributes previously mentioned. Therefore, there remains an unmet need for dental devices comprising a natural, sustainable material that achieves a satisfactory quality of hardness and durability.